The court does not attempt to “second guess” an attorney’s decision to move for an emergency hearing. In such an instance, the court will almost always set the matter promptly. Counsel are requested to consider the totality of the circumstances before filing such a request.

If an accelerated or emergency motion is granted, the Courtroom Deputy will inform the movant of the expedited hearing date and time and the proposed order shall be lodged thereafter. The order setting the expedited hearing and notice of hearing are to include specific dates by which responsive pleadings are to be filed and are to be served by the movant upon all interested parties. However, the court may, after review of the request, deem the matter to be routine and set it in the ordinary course within approximately 30 days.

C. BAR DATE/NEGATIVE NOTICE

In addition to the bar date procedures established by the Local Rules, unless the Court orders otherwise, the moving party may use a twenty-one (21) day bar date notice for the following matters:

The party using the negative notice/bar date procedure must give detailed notice of the proposed motion or application and clearly state the requirement to respond within the time allowed. The moving party may file a certificate of service and of no objection and lodge an appropriate order granting the relief requested. The lodged order should conform to the relief requested in the motion or application.

If an objection to the motion or application is filed, the MOVANT is responsible for lodging a notice of hearing with the Court, and upon receiving a hearing date, shall give notice to all interested parties of the hearing and file a certificate of mailing. In the alternative, and particularly if an objection is anticipated, a hearing date may be obtained for any such motion or application.

D. MOTIONS FOR CONTINUATION OF THE AUTOMATIC STAY

Motions for continuation of the automatic stay pursuant to § 362(c)(3) and motions for the automatic stay to take effect pursuant to § 362(c)(4) will not be approved on negative notice. Such motions should be filed at the time of filing the petition to ensure adequate time for a hearing. Counsel are advised that hearings on these motions should be noticed with a provision that if there are no objections filed within five (5) days of the hearing date, the hearing may be vacated and the Court may accept evidence through declarations or verified pleadings

E. LAST MINUTE FILINGS/LATE FILED PLEADINGS

No pleading filed less than 48 hours in advance of the hearing date will be considered by the Court unless the filing party notifies the Judge’s Law Clerk, Sasha Aliakbar-Amid, of the filing by email at Sasha_Aliakbar-Amid@azb.uscourts.gov. All original documents must be filed with the Clerk of the Bankruptcy Court. Counsel should ordinarily allow themselves sufficient time to submit documents through the normal process, and all e-mails should be received no later than 4:00 p.m. on the business day prior to the hearing.

F. CONTINUANCES & RESOLUTION OF MATTERS SET FOR HEARING

Requests for continuances should be filed as soon as the parties feel the need for such request. Parties should be prepared to appear at any scheduled hearing until receiving notice that the motion has been granted.

Parties should contact the Courtroom Deputy to obtain a continued hearing date prior to uploading a continuance order, and include the date and time in the order. Proposed orders with blank hearing dates will be deleted and the requesting party informed. If granted, the requesting party shall either serve the signed order and/or file a new form of notice for the continued hearing and notice it out. A copy of the signed continuance order and/or notice of hearing is to be sent to the Courtroom Deputy for calendaring.

A resolved matter that is set for hearing may be taken off calendar by a telephone call from the moving party to the Courtroom Deputy at any time. The parties are encouraged to inform the Courtroom Deputy as soon as the matter has been resolved. Appropriate paperwork can then be filed thereafter.

G. COURT MINUTE ENTRIES

All court hearing minutes and audio recordings are available on the docket. Counsel who do not appear for hearings before Judge Gan can monitor what happens in their cases by viewing the minute entries or listening to the audio recordings through ECF.

H. LODGING ORDERS

Uploaded orders should relate to the initiating motion or stipulation and not the notice of lodging or the certificate of service and no objection. Counsel is required to file the Notice of Lodging Proposed Order pursuant to Local Rule 9022-1. For questions regarding the status of lodged orders, please contact Lupe Martinez@azb.uscourts.gov.

I. EXHIBITS

Attorney

All exhibits presented at trial before Judge Gan are to be presented electronically. This applies to all trials held in Tucson, Phoenix or Yuma . This does not apply to pro se parties.

Electronic exhibits may be presented in the courtroom in the following formats: Thumb drive, Audiotape, Videotape, Electronically filed documents, Power Point, or other exhibit programs, such as Sanctions or Trial Director. The Courtroom Deputy will not mark the electronic exhibit with a traditional exhibit tag. Instead, counsel and/or parties are to work together to properly mark the exhibits and to provide an electronic list of all exhibits to the Courtroom Deputy. (Sample of Exhibit list below - Exhibit List Form - Word version) Please contact Teresa Mattingly if you have any questions about the format. Counsel are required to supply their own laptop on which they will display the exhibits. The courtroom is able to readily support a VGA or HDMI connection to the courtroom audio/video system. If counsel's laptop is anything other than a Windows laptop that uses a VGA or HDMI connection, they should contact the Courtroom Deputy at least one week prior to the trial to make special arrangements.

Counsel are to provide one official copy of the exhibits at least 72 hours prior to trial to the Courtroom Clerk on a Thumb Drive (or CD-Rom).

Pro Se

Exhibits should be brought to the courtroom in tabbed and indexed exhibit books at the time of commencement of any trial/evidentiary hearing. The Court requires one original exhibit book, which the witness may use during testimony, one bench copy and one copy for opposing counsel. Each book should also contain an index of the exhibits. (Sample of Exhibit list below - Exhibit List Form - Word version)

Upon filing of a new Chapter 11 case, the Court issues a “Case Management Order” which sets the date for the Case Management Status Hearing. Counsel is to notice out the hearing. Counsel and the Court shall address all issues set forth in the order at the time of the hearing.

3. CHAPTER 11 CASH COLLATERAL

Cash collateral matters are the most critical “first day” or early motions. The Court will set these matters as quickly as it can, sometimes on the same day. The moving party should provide a proposed BUDGET (short-term) for the secured creditor’s review. The parties should confer on the budget, if possible, prior to the hearing. Orders concerning cash collateral will be promptly entered.

4. CHAPTER 11 ORDERS FOR EMPLOYMENT OF PROFESSIONALS

Please include the following language on employment orders:

Approval of employment of a professional person DOES NOT automatically approve any fee arrangement set forth in the application or any attachments thereto. No fees are pre-approved by the court. Any request for a professional fee must be made separately, by a detailed application supporting the request, notice must be given to creditors and other parties-in-interest, and the court must have an opportunity to review any objections which any party may have. The court may also consider the application in the absence of any objections, and may adjust the fees according to the merits of the particular case. 11 U.S.C. §§ 327, 328, 329, 330, and 331.

5. CHAPTER 11 CLAIMS BAR DATE

The court requires 60 days notice of claims bar dates in Chapter 11 cases. This is important in connection with orders for hearings on disclosure statements if that is how the debtor will notice out the claims bar date. Alternatively, the debtor can request a separate claims bar date by ex parte motion and order, without the need for a hearing, but creditors will need at least 60 days notice to file their claims. Proof of service of the order upon all creditors and interested parties must be filed with the court.

B. CHAPTER 13 CASES

1. CHAPTER 13 AVOID/STRIP LIENS

Please use Judge Gan's preferred form of order (or a version with all the specifics included), which is located as the last item on this procedure page.

To set a matter for hearing, counsel may obtain a hearing date by contacting the Courtroom Deputy, Teresa Mattingly, by e-mail at shgecfhearing@azb.uscourts.gov. The request for hearing must be accompanied by a copy of the “ECF Filing Receipt”. Counsel will then be provided with a hearing date and time for the notice.

Once a hearing date is given to the moving party, the moving party MUST give notice to all interested parties and file a certificate of service, and e-mail the Courtroom Deputy a copy of the hearing notice and ECF receipt for calendaring purposes.

Once a response has been filed, the moving party is responsible for scheduling a preliminary hearing on the lift stay motion by contacting the Courtroom Deputy, Teresa Mattingly, by e-mail at shgecfhearing@azb.uscourts.gov. The movant is responsible for noticing and sending the Courtroom Deputy a copy of the notice and ECF receipt for calendaring.

At the Preliminary Hearing it is generally the Court’s practice to set a “1 Minute” Final Hearing to allow the parties to negotiate a settlement. If the matter is not resolved by the time of the “1 Minute” Final, the Court will promptly set an evidentiary hearing.

If no response is filed, the creditor may lodge a form of order. However, the order is not to include excessive “self-serving” language which is intended to deprive other interested parties of valuable rights. Examples of such overreaching language are:

• Waivers of the automatic 14-day stay of Rule 4001;
• Abandonment language (abandonment requests require notice on the entire creditor body. See 11 U.S.C. § 554);
• Orders that require the debtors to surrender the collateral to the creditor (this is what state law provisional remedies are for!);
• Annulment of the stay (unless this remedy actually applies);
• Voluminous findings of fact (if you desire an evidentiary hearing, then the court can prepare findings).

C. Telephonic Appearances

Tucson attorneys are to appear in the Tucson courtroom, Phoenix attorneys are to appear in the assigned Phoenix courtroom and Yuma attorneys are to appear in the Yuma courtroom when the courtrooms are available. Tucson, Phoenix and Yuma counsel may appear telephonically by permission. Any interested party located outside of Tucson, Phoenix or Yuma may request permission to appear telephonically for routine matters.

Telephonic appearances may be arranged two business days in advance by contacting Courtroom Deputy, Teresa Mattingly, by e-mail at shgecfhearing@azb.uscourts.gov (or by telephone at 520-202-7968).

TELEPHONIC APPEARANCES ARE NOT PERMITTED FOR EVIDENTIARY HEARINGS OR TRIALS WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM THE COURT.

D. Video Appearances

Routine video calendars are arranged with all venues (Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma).

Video calendars save money for both the courts and counsel, and allow the court to hear more matters each month. Parties may appear by video for routine matters any time that video is available but video is not available for every hearing. Please consult the Notice of Hearing, the minute entry setting the hearing, or the court hearing calendar posted at http://www.azb.uscourts.gov/court-calendars to determine whether video is available for a particular hearing. The calendar is posted to the court’s web site at http://www.azb.uscourts.gov/court-calendars every Friday for the following week.

VIDEO APPEARANCES ARE NOT PERMITTED FOR EVIDENTIARY HEARINGS OR TRIAL WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM THE COURT.

Obtaining Transcripts

In order to obtain a transcript from a Tucson or Yuma hearing, contact Alicia Johns, ECR Operator, 520-202-7556 or e-mail at Alicia_Johns@azb.uscourts.gov.

In order to obtain a transcript from a Phoenix hearing, contact the PhoenixCourt’s ECR Operators by phone at 602-682-4200 or email at azbml_phx_ecr@azb.uscourts.gov.